On this page: Itylus – Iulus – Ixion – Janus

ITYLUS——JANUS.

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of the different station's on the public roads, after the manner of our road-books (iti-ncraria adnotata or scripta); or (2) char-tographic representations similar to our travelling maps (itineraria picta). Of the former kind we have

(1) the two Antonine Itineraries, the basis of which belongs to the time of the emperor Antoninus Caracalla; but the edition which has come down to us dates from the beginning of the 4th century. They contain lists of routes by land and sea in the Roman empire.

(2) The Itinerarium Surdigalense or Hlerosolymitanum, 333 A.D., the route of a pilgrimage from BurdTgala (Bordeaux) to Jerusalem.

(3) The Itinerarium Alexandri, an ab­stract of the Persian expedition of Alex­ander the Great, drawn up mainly from Arrian for the expedition of the emperor Constantius against the Persians (a.d. 340-345).

Of the other kind of itineraries, in the form of maps, we have a specimen in the Peutinger Map, tabula Peutingeriana, now in Vienna. It received its name from its former possessor, Konrad Peutinger, a coun­cillor of Augsburg. It was painted at Kolmar in 1265 on the model of an original map which dates back to the middle of the 3rd century a.d. It consists of twelve broad strips of parchment, on which are delineated all those parts of the world which were known to the Romans: only

the pieces which should contain Spain and Britain are lost [with the exception of part of Kent.] It is disproportionately elongated in the direction of east to west, the ratio of its height to its breadth being 1: 21. The distances from town to town are marked on lines running from east to west, and the relative sizes of the towns indicated by distinctive marks. [A cheap and excellent facsimile was published by 0. Maier of Ravensburg in 1888.] Itylus (Itys). See aedon, procne. fulus. See ascanius. Ixion. Son of Phlegyas (or of Ares), and king of the Lapithae. By Dia he was the father of PirlthSiis (who, according to

i Homer, however, was a son of Zeus). He attempted to withhold from his father-in-law, Deioneus, the bridal gifts he had pro­mised. De'ioneus accordingly detained the horses of Ixion. The latter invited him to his house and threw him into a pit filled with fire. When Zeus not only purified him

| from this murder, but even invited him to the table of the gods, he became arrogant and insolent, and even sought to win the love of Hera. Zeus thereupon formed of the clouds a phantom resembling Hera, and by it Ixion became the father of the Cen­taurs. On his boasting of the favours he imagined the goddess to have granted him, Zeus caused him to be punished for this crime by being fastened to a wheel, on which he was to turn in terror for ever­more in the world below.

Janus. A god peculiar to the Italians, with no corresponding divinity among the Greeks. Even the ancients were by no means clear as to his special significance; he was, however, regarded as one of the oldest, holiest, and most exalted of gods. In Rome the king, and in later times the rex sacrorurn (q.v.), sacrificed to him. At every sacrifice, he was remembered first; in every prayer he was the first invoked, being mentioned even before Jupiter. In the songs of the Sain he was called the good creator, and the god of gods; he is elsewhere named the oldest of the gods and the beginning of all things. It would ap­pear that originally he was a god of the light and of the sun, who opened the gates of heaven on going forth in the morning and closed them on returning at evening. In course of time he became the god of all

going out and coming in, to whom all places of entrance and passage, all doors and gates, were holy. In Rome all doors and covered passages were suggestive of his name. The former were called ianua>; over the latter, the arches which spanned the streets were called iani, a term perhaps symbolical of the vault of heaven. Many of these were expressly dedicated to him, especially those which were situated iu markets and frequented streets, or at cross­roads. In this case they were adorned with his image, and the double arch became a temple with two doors, or the two double arches a temple with four. He was gene­rally represented as a porter with a staff and a key in his hands, and with two bearded faces placed back to back and look­ing in opposite directions (see cut). He is also the god of entrance into a new division